A father’s view of basketball recruiting pressures
Posted by Mike Fields on May 16, 2008
When Nathan Popp was a 6-foot-6 sixth-grader in Shelbyville, he got a letter from the University of San Francisco telling him about its basketball program.
When Popp was a 7-foot eighth-grader, UK fans recognized him when he attended games at Rupp Arena.
When Popp was a freshman at Shelby County, he was Rick Pitino’s guest at UK’s Midnight Madness in 1991.
Mike Popp, Nathan’s dad, has been reflecting on those dizzying times lately while reading and hearing about the hot-topic issue of UK Coach Billy Gillispie getting commitments from eighth-graders and freshmen.
“It’s just getting crazy,” Mike Popp said. “How can an eighth-grader or freshman, I don’t care how mentally tough he is, live up to all the expectations and handle all that pressure? He’s already branded. Every night he goes out for the next few years, he’s gotta get 20 or 25 points or people are going to ask what the hell’s wrong with him.”
Mike Popp has regrets about how he handled his own son’s journey through the recruiting process when he was a high-profile prospect at a young age.
“Looking back, the one thing I’d do different, I’d try to keep him away from everybody. Not smother him, but keep him away from the media and not let him get over-exposed. I think all that overwhelmed him and unnerved him.
“My thinking was to go ahead and get him accustomed to all the attention, so when he was a junior and senior (in high school), he’d be used to it. But it backfired. He became more introverted. He was in a tough situation on and off the court. When you’re 7-foot, you can’t hide. He just really wanted to be one of the crowd, but there was no way.”
Mike Popp remembers early in Nathan’s high school career when the two of them stopped by Pitino’s office at UK. “Rick told me, ‘Do your best to keep everybody away from him.’ But his advice went in one ear and out the other. I thought my system was better. But I was wrong. It was stupid of me to put him through it like that.”
Nathan transferred from Shelby County to Lexington Catholic for his last two years of high school. He never developed into the big-time college prospect he was projected to be. He wound up going to North Carolina-Greensboro, then transferred to Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. His dad said Nathan is now a substitute teacher in Shelby County, and working for his Masters in special education.
College basketball recruiting was an animal to be dealt with in the 1990s, but it has since devolved into an untamed monster. And Mike Popp can’t understand why parents want to expose their kids to the dangers before they have to.
“Gosh dang, there’s talent out there with (high school) juniors and seniors,” he said. “I don’t know what the rush is. Let’s let kids be kids first. The first time one of these young players goes out and doesn’t dazzle somebody, everybody’s going to be negative. It’s just crazy. What it comes down to is that all of the kids really become just a piece of meat.”
